While I don't normally do Christmas music in July, I went ahead and did so here, because I really like this song. This is "Ríu Ríu Chíu," a famous Spanish villancico (a villancico being a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries) that attained some fame later on as a Christmas carol. If you're familiar with the Monkees, you might know this song from the fact they performed it on their television show. The way I've done it here, however, is for saxophone quartet and claves (the claves were just to help me keep time, since the music has several pauses in it).

The overall theme of the song is the nativity and the birth and Jesus Christ, our ever-present Lord and Savior. Born of a virgin, He lived a perfect, sinless life, and yet took the punishment for our sins by dying that brutal death on the cross. Three days later, He came back to life, conquering and defeating death (and therefore Satan), and solidifying Himself as the One True King. 40 days after His resurrection, He ascended back into heaven, and one day He will return to Earth and straighten the whole mess out. This is the real story behind Christmas and Easter Sunday; it has nothing to do with Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

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This arrangement © me and me alone
Original composition is now public domain, though some recordings of it are not.

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Ríu Ríu Chíu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riG85oA6Wy4 (The Monkees sing it on their show)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uNh82VT3q4 (alternate version by Chanticleer)

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UPDATE: Now in scraps.